by Chris Williams: Former WBC super bantamweight chanmpion Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KO’s) is missing the main ingredient for him to have a good chance of beating IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) on October 13th this year at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

Nishioka is missing power, and that’s going to cause him to have to box the entire fight instead of looking to slug with Donaire. It’s not that Donaire has the best chin in the world, because he can be hurt if Nishioka lands something really big. However, Nishioka isn’t a huge puncher and he hasn’t stopped a good fighter since he stopped Jhonny Gonzalez in the 3rd round in 2009.

Since that win, Nishioka’s knockouts have come fewer and fewer in between. He’s now having to settle for winning decisions in fights where he’s taking a lot of hard shots. That’s a worry, because Donaire does have decent but not great fighter at super bantamweight, and he’ll be able to punish Nishioka if all he has is pitty-pat punches.

The 36-year-old Nishioka has a lot of boxing fans and organizations seeing him as the best fighter at super bantamweight. I don’t agree with that. I think Nishioka was perhaps the best fighter at 122 lbs back three years ago but things change quickly and he’s definitely aged as we saw in Nishioka’s close 12 round decision win over Rafael Marquez last October. Nishioka didn’t impress in that fight, and is lucky to have won it because I felt that the fight should have been scored a draw if not a win for Marquez.